Mt Beautiful North Canterbury Rosé 2020

Description

Apple, Dry, Strawberry

The 2020 vintage has a classic pale pink onion-skin color. It is an aromatic wine exhibiting wild berry (wild strawberry) and savory straw like aromas. On the palate the wine is dry and refreshing with classic berry fruit, strawberries and cream character accompanied by herbal notes and finishing with a crisp red apple skin freshness.

Traditionally made Rosé produced from Pinot Noir (76%) and Pinot Gris (24%) juice pressed off after a period of light skin contact and co-fermented in tank.

2020 was a year of good yields in both Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. A bright sunny year lead to lots of color in the skins. The result was we needed less skin contact and Pinot Noir was picked and macerated for 8 hours before pressing and juice clarifying. The Pinot Gris was also given 8 hours skin contact. Both juices were then blended together then co-fermented to harmonize both flavor and structure. The wine was fermented for about 10 days at 160 Centigrade and then aged on lees for a further 3 months prior to racking a clarifying. The lees ageing helps add more complexity texture and mouthfeel to the wine. The wine was bottled in August 2020 to retain maximum freshness and fruitiness.

The Pinot Noir is planted on the Southern section of the vineyard . This has the highest elevation and provides extra warmth and less frost risk. In addition to this our Pinot Noir is closely planted to reduce vigor resulting in lower crop levels of around 45hl/ha, allowing us to get physiologically ripe fruit and give a true expression of this variety. Our Pinot Noir is all hand tended throughout the season and at harvest. Our mix of Pinot Noir clones were specifically chosen for their flavor profile with 50% of the vineyard planted in Burgundy clones. The parcel selected for Rosé production largely consists of Clone 5 and the Swiss clone Mariafeld. Both have slightly bigger berries and thinner skins. The Pinot Gris is located on a similar hillside face as the Pinot Noir. It consists of Pinot Gris clones Berrysmith, Orvaille and GN 2-21. It is important that the two Pinots are fermented together as they have complimentary roles and some of the phenolics found in Pinot Gris skins help fix color and aromatics in the Pinot Noir.

Food Pairing: Mt. Beautiful Rosé pairs beautifully with fresh run salmon bake, Thai beef salad and an afternoon by the pool.